1938 New South Wales state election

The 1938 New South Wales state election was held on 26 March 1938. This election was for all of the 90 seats in the 32nd New South Wales Legislative Assembly and was conducted in single member constituencies with compulsory preferential voting.

1938 New South Wales state election
26 March 1938 (1938-03-26)
All 90 seats in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly
46 Assembly seats were needed for a majority
  First party Second party
 
Leader Bertram Stevens Jack Lang
Party UAP/Country coalition Labor
Leader since 5 April 1932 31 July 1923
Leader's seat Croydon Auburn
Last election 61 seats 29 seats
Seats won 59 28
Seat change Decrease2 Decrease1
Percentage 49.6% 34.8%
Swing Increase3.6 Decrease7.6
Legislative Assembly after the election
Premier before election

Bertram Stevens
UAP/Country coalition

 Elected Premier

Bertram Stevens
UAP/Country coalition

The result of the election was:

The UAP/Country Party coalition of Bertram Stevens and Michael Bruxner had a majority of 28 (down 2). Stevens continued as Premier until 5 August 1939 when he resigned after being censured by the Legislative Assembly, with 10 United Australia members crossing the floor. He was replaced as Premier by Alexander Mair.

Lang Labor reconciled with Labor in February 1936,[1] however Labor's primary vote continued to decline.[2] Labor's continued poor showing in this election was seen as evidence of Jack Lang's inability to appeal to the middle ground of the electorate. As a result, moves to dispose Lang intensified. The Industrial Labor Party led by Lang rival Bob Heffron was re-absorbed into the Labor on 26 August 1939 and Lang was replaced as party leader by William McKell on 5 September 1939.[1]

During this parliament Labor and Industrial Labor each won 2 by-elections from the United Australia Party.[3] This reduced the Government's majority to 20 when the parliament was dissolved.

Key dates
Date Event
24 February 1938 The Legislative Assembly was dissolved, and writs were issued by the Governor to proceed with an election.
4 March 1938 Nominations for candidates for the election closed at noon.
26 March 1938 Polling day.
13 April 1938 Third Stevens–Bruxner ministry sworn in.
26 April 1938 The writs were returned and the results formally declared.
12 April 1938 Opening of 32nd Parliament.

Results
Main article: Results of the 1938 New South Wales state election

New South Wales state election, 26 March 1938
Legislative Assembly
<< 1935–1941 >>

Enrolled voters 1,607,833[lower-alpha 1]
Votes cast 1,183,257 Turnout 95.79 –0.27
Informal votes 32,237 Informal 2.65 –0.39
Summary of votes by party
Party Primary votes  % Swing Seats Change
  United Australia 424,275 35.86 +2.76 37 – 1
  Labor 412,063 34.82 –7.60 28 –1
  Country 164,045 13.86 +0.94 22 –1
  Industrial Labor 43,735 3.70 +3.70 2 +2
  Communist 10,386 0.88 –0.6 0 ±0
  Independents 128,753 10.88 +6.4 1 +1
Total 1,183,257     90  
Popular vote
United
 
 35.86%
Labor
 
 34.82%
Country
 
 13.86%
Industrial Labor
 
 3.7%
Independents
 
 6.4%
Parliamentary seats
United
 
 37
Labor
 
 28
Country
 
 22
Industrial Labor
 
 2
Independents
 
 1

Retiring members
This section is an excerpt from Candidates of the 1938 New South Wales state election § Retiring members.[edit]

United Australia

Country

Independent

Changing seats
Seats changing hands
Seat 1935 1938
Party Member Member Party
Botany   Labor Bob Heffron Bob Heffron [lower-alpha 2] Industrial Labor  
Corowa   Country Richard Ball [lower-alpha 3] Christopher Lethbridge Independent  
Granville   United Australia Claude Fleck Bill Lamb Labor  
Marrickville   Labor Carlo Lazzarini Carlo Lazzarini [lower-alpha 2] Industrial Labor  

The member for Woollahra, Sir Daniel Levy (United Australia), died in 1937. The resulting by-election was won by Harold Mason (Independent UAP) however he did not contest the election and the seat was regained by Vernon Treatt (United Australia).

See also

Notes
  1. A total of 19 electorates (six UAP, three Country, and ten Labor) were uncontested, representing 338,853 voters.[2]
  2. Bob Heffron (Botany) and Carlo Lazzarini (Marrickville) were expelled from Labor in 1936 and formed the Industrial Labor Party.
  3. Richard Ball (Country) died and Christopher Lethbridge (Independent) won the resulting by-election, retaining the seat at this election.

References
  1. Nairn, Bede. "Lang, John Thomas (Jack) (1876–1975)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
  2. Green, Antony. "1938 election totals". New South Wales Election Results 1856-2007. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 31 July 2019.
  3. Green, Antony. "1938-1941 By elections". New South Wales Election Results 1856-2007. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
  • Nairn, Bede (1995) Jack Lang the 'Big Fella':Jack Lang and the Australian Labor Party 1891-1949 Melbourne University Press Melbourne ISBN 0-522-84700-5 OCLC 34416531
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